Krasnodar-Kuban Offensive

The Krasnodar-Kuban Offensive was an offensive operation carried out by the Soviet Red Army from 1 to 20 February 1943 when Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky's Don Front launched a multi-pronged assault on Axis positions in Krasnodar Krai and the Kuban region north of the Caucasus. The first attack came from the north: the German 4th Panzer Army and XXXX Panzer Corps and the Romanian 7th Corps, under the command of Gotthard Heinrici, were attacked in Rostov-on-Don, while the 13th Panzer Division and the Slovak Rapid Division under Kurt von der Chevallerie were assaulted in Primorsko-Ahtarsk. In the south, the Soviet 47th Army under Mikhail Panov assaulted the German V Armeekorps and three allied Romanian divisions under the command of Kurt-Juergen Freiherr von Luetzow at Gelendzik.